His eyes with the benevolent eyes of Buddha with the sips of coffee.

City Tour

Parash Mani Ghimire

‘Hello Paras ji, has the plane landed?’, it was Samir from Kathmandu travel. He wanted to be sure that the clients are coming today and could do the 1/2 day sightseeing of the itinerary. Sometimes the mistakes can happen but their extent could really make a great issue! Exactly I’m saying this because it was Mr. Samir who had asked me to go for arrival yesterday.

I reached the airport at 10.30 pm, waited up to 2 am, all the passengers came out but not my clients because Samir had done mistakes. The real date of arrival was today but he had said to me yesterday. He realized those mistakes and said to me,’sorry Paras ji, don’t worry, I will write 1/2 day more for you!’ It was not questions of money only, but I said to him, it’s okay! thanks.’

I was waiting outside with the placard of Mr. Gabriel. A tall and a jyango man (man having a strong and tight body, seen as a wrestler) raised his one hand toward my placard whose other hand was busy to hold the hand of the lady, Ana Maria, who was also tall like Mr. Gabriel and was seen slim with black glass and whiskey hair. I welcomed them with khada.

I called the driver who was waiting at the parking. We entered to our car, we had 1/2day sightseeing also, it was already 4 pm so instead of going to a hotel, we went for the sightseeing., i.e, Pashupatinath and Boudhanath.
Pashupatinath, one of the important shrines for Hindu people all over the world. In Nepal, obviously, it is the center of faith and symbol of national glory for the majority of people (Hindu people, and Buddhists as well. Hindu people believe that they should come here at least once in their lifetime to be pardoned from their mistakes which they have done in their lifetime.

So lots of Hindu people all over the world come here! People believe that if they were cremated here in Arya ghat they would get the grace of god Mahadeva, god of all god, and go to heaven directly. All these lines which I was telling to the Brazilian couple, they were listening like a spellbound! The cremation process was really strong and catchy for them. They saw people crying over the Corp of their relative, near to that they saw, some kids trying to catch the coins thrown by the pilgrims who were seeking their lucks by throwing the coins at the roof of the small stone temple. Similarly, some people were seen ringing the bell with their sole sound of Jai Shamvo (oh mercy god Shiva, bless us). ‘It is a real-life scene here, from life to death’, said Gabriel in his eloquent voice, appreciating the importance of this place as a world heritage site for UNESCO!

The sips of coffee at Himalayan Java at Boudhanath with the view of great Stupa, ‘it is really cheap for the place where we are’, I guessed that Mr. Gabriel must be saying this with himself because he was not talking at all with me, was just trying to fix his eyes with the benevolent eyes of Buddha at the stupa, with the sips of coffee. They were really enjoying the tour. It was getting dark and tomorrow they were setting for the trek to Annapurna, so we decided to go to the hotel for check-in. We arrived at hotel Soltee Crown Plaza. The staff of Soltee welcomed us. The waiter served us a welcome drink.

Mr. Gabriel shooks his hand with me and Ana hugged me, and they went to their room, and I returned home thinking about the group arriving tomorrow.